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The Regal Sceatta and Styca Series of Northumbria

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The Regal Sceatta and Styca Series of Northumbria THE REGAL S CEATTA AND STYCA S ERIES O F NORTHUMBRIA. By MAJOR A. B. C REEKE. OWARDS the middle of the fifth century th e Angles g . began to settle in the British provinces of Berni cia and Deira, situate on the northerly part of the east coast of England. Deira extended from the Humber to the Tyne, and Bernicia from the Tyne to the Tweed. In A.D. 547, Ida, an Angle chief, came to Flamborough H ead with a large contingent of his countrymen, including their wives and families, in forty ships, and proceeding to Bernicia, founded that kingdom as its first king. H e died in A.D. 559 and was succeeded successively by his six sons, during whose reigns the Britons re-conquered a considerable portion of the kingdom. lElla, another Angle chief, became king of D eira in A.D . 560 and died in A.D. 588. JETHELFRITH, king of Bernicia, son of lEthelric and grandson of Id a, and also son-in-law of lElla, seized the kingdom of Deira in A. D. 593. H e united it to Berni cia, and after exiling H ereric, the boy king, and E adwine, the infant son of lElla, founded the kingdom of Northumbria. By his victory over the Britons at the battle of Chester, A.D . 607, he extended his kingdo m to the Dee and th us added that city to his domain. Beda says that he conquered more territories from the Britons than any other king. In A.D . 6 I 7 he F 66 Early R egal Coinage of Nortkzt1J'zbria. was defeated and slain at th e battle on the Idl e, in Nottinghamshire, by Rsedwald, king of East Anglia, the third Bretwalda. Sim eon of Durham styles lEthelfrith," the bravest of kings." EADWINE, the previously mentioned son of lElla, succeeded lEthelfrith in A.D. 617. He was the first Christian king of Northumbria, being baptized in A.D. 627 by Paulinus, who was afterwards created the first Archbishop of York. E adwine, after the death of Rsedwald, became the fourth Bretwalda. In A.D. 633 Penda, king of Mercia, and the champion of heathendom, in alliance with Cad walla, king of th e Strathclyde Britons, attacked and slew E adwine at th e battle of Heathfield, in the 'vV est Riding of Yorkshire. Cadw alla after­ wards ruled and ravaged Northumbria, until he was defeated and slain by OSWALD, son of .tEthelfrith, at the battle of Denieshurna, near H exham, in A.D. 634. When Oswald succeeded to the kingdom he at once dev oted his energies to th e re-establishment of Christianity, which had been almost destroyed by Penda and Cadwalla, and to healing the wounds which th ey had inflicted upon his kingdom. H e was the fifth Bretwalda. In A. D. 642, whilst on his way to assist the East An glians against the attacks of Penda, he was defeated and slain by him at the battle of Maserfeld (Winwick), near Warrington, Lancashire. OSWIU, broth er of Oswald, succeeded to the kingdom in A.D. 642 . He strove to live in peace with Penda, but th e latter, in conjunction with Ethelhere, king of East Anglia, Ethelwald, son of Oswald, and Cadwallader, son of Cadwalla, with othe r British princes, att acked and ravaged Northumbria in A.D. 655. Penda was, however, defeated and slain by Oswiu, at the battle of Winwzedfeld, near Leeds, together with Ethelhere and many othe r royal persons E cgfrith, A.D. 67°-685. In the same year. Oswiu was 'the sixth Bretwalda, and he added considerably to his dominions. He died in A. D. 670, and was the first king of Northumbria to die in peace upon the throne. No coins are known of any of the before-named kings of N orthumbria. "­ I THE ORIGIN OF THE DISTINCTIVE NORTHUMBRIAN COINAGE.l The numismatic history of Northumbria begins soon after the death of Oswiu, but whether with the reign of Ec gfrith, 67°-685, or of his successor Aldfrith, 685-7°5, is a question yet to be decided. Numismatic writers appear to have ge nerally accepted the reign of Ecgfrith as its comm encement, without question, upon the strength of a few very rare copper stycas, all struck from the same dies and reading on the obvers e ECGFRID REX, which were found In the churchyard of Heworth, Durham , in A.D. 1813 . If their attribution be correct, we are confronted with the fact that none of his successors prior to lElfwald 1. , 779-788, an interval covering a period of at least one hundred years , issued any coinage other than one of silver" sceattas. lElfwald 1., however, then issued both sceattas and stycas, the latter being introduced towards the end of his reign; and after his death sceattas ceased to be issued, the stycas" becoming th e peculiar and only coinage of N orthumbria until th e death of Osbercht in A.D. 867. T his fact alone seems strong presumptive evidence that the transition from the sceatta to the styca, i.e., from a silver to a copper standard, did not comme nce until the reign of lElfwald 1., or more than a century after the I It is probable that some of the earlier sceattas which have been found in this country, were issued in Northumbria, but as yet no distinctive charact eristics or legends have been discovered by which they can be identified. 2 The silver of these sceattas, like that of the anonymous sceattas, is more or less base. 3 The stycas are of copper, bronze, brass, or a mixed metal. F 2 68 Early Regal Coinag~ of .f\Torthumbrz'a. death of Ecgfrith. Lindsay in his Coinage of t/ze H eptarchy, in speaking of the appropriation of these stycas to Ecgfrith, says:- This appropriation, however, I must confess, has never appeared to me perfectly satisfactory; the neatness of these coins, their want of resemblance to any of the early ones of Northumberland,' and, above all, the word REX which occurs on them, but which we do not find on any of the numerous coins of Northumberland,' before the reign of Eanred, all incline me to consider these coins of a later period than that of 670, and as more likely to belong to Ecgfrid, the son of Offa, than to the Northumbrian prince of that name; as, however, I have no evidence to offer decisive of the question, and as the appropriation of these coins to Northumber­ land' has been almost universally assented to, J shall not venture to remove them from their place amongst the coins of that kingdom. The course adopted by Lindsay will be followed in this paper, although the writer is strongly of opinion that the stycas in question were not issued by Ecgfrith of Northumbria. ECGFRITH, son of Oswiu, succeeded to the kingdom 111 A.D. 670. By his conquests and rule he raised Northumbria to its highest pitch of power and glory. In A.D. 685 he invaded the country of the Picts and was defeated and slain, and his army destroyed, at the battle of N echtansmere. In consequence of this great disaster the Northumbrians lost a considerable portion of their territories, and also the suzerainty of some of the adjoining kingdoms. The copper stycas attributed to Ecgfrith are all of one type: Obverse, + ECGFRID REX, surrounding a cross. Reverse, LVXX, one letter being opposite each of the four angles of a radiate cross. The reverse legend is said to be LVX, and to have a religious meaning; but the correct reading is more probably LV, an abbreviation of th e name of the moneyer, LVL or LVLLA, who was also a moneyer of Offa, king of Mercia, A.D. 757 to A.D. 796, and his successor Coenwulf; the crosses, XX, not being intended 1 " Northumberland" is here an error for" Northumbria." Ecgfrith of l/I£ercia, A.D. 785. 69 for letters, but to complete the ornamentation of the angl es of the cross. The suggestion therefore of Lindsay, that these stycas were more likely to belong to Ecgfrith, the son of Offa, than to Ecgfrith of Northumbria, should not be lightly tre ated. It is true that the coinage of stycas was peculiar to Northumbria, and its only coinage from about A.D. 788 to A. D. 867, but this is not proof that stycas were not occasionally coined in the neighbouring kingdom of Mercia. When not at war with each other there would be some trading between the border populations of the two kingdoms, and, as N orthumbria possessed no silver coinage of its own, it would be a conveni ent and profitabl e policy for the Mercians to coin stycas for use in their dealings with th e N orthumbrians. A parallel example may be quoted from the time of Stephen, when the Scotch so closely imitated the English coinage that, except for the king's name, som e of their money is identical. As evidence that in the course of trade stycas found their way across the border into Mercia, and were accepted by that county, it may be mentioned that they have been discovered at Castleton in Derbyshire.' The style of these disputed stycas also suggests a Mercian rather than a North­ umbrian origin, and that they could not have been issued earlier than the close of the eighth century. In A. D. 785, Ecgfrith, son of Offa, was "hallowed king" of Mercia, and probably acted as Viceroy of the northern or border portion of that kingdom until his father's death in A.D.
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